Questions and Replies

Reply:

1. The Department of Cooperative Governance (DCOG) has approached the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) to act as its implementing agent in the roll out of the District Development Model (DDM) by providing the requisite project and programme capacity. Accordingly, the DCOG and the DBSA has entered into a Memorandum of Agreement on 03 March 2020 to formalise the roles of the Parties in the establishment of the DDM Programme Management Office (PMO) and the rolling out of Phase 1 of the DDM in the pilots in accordance with the programme implementation plan. The said MoA provides for the programme funding arrangements and specifies that the DCOG shall fund the programme up to a total amount of R50 million (Fifty Million Rand) per annum over the first three financial years of the duration of the MoA.

(i) To this end, the DBSA has invoiced the Department for the first R50 million payable for the 2020/21 financial year.

(ii) Furthermore, the DBSA has agreed to contribute financially towards the capacitation of the PMO and technical advisors to support the initiatives which are essential to the implementation and management of the programme, i.e. the preparation of the One Plan for the two DDM pilots, namely OR Tambo and Waterberg. Therefore, the DBSA as the implementing agent has procured the service providers for the development of the One Plans for the two pilots and all payments are made by the DBSA directly to the contracted service providers.

2. As indicated above the department does not pay any of the One Plan service providers and all payments are made by the DBSA as the implementing agent to the contracted service providers. To date the DBSA has paid the contracted One Plan service providers a total amount of R1 257 217.40.

3. The total contract value payable to the appointed service providers for the complete development of the One Plans for the two pilots amount to R4 930 398.00

 

Reply:

Yes, I have received a briefing from the Gauteng department of COGTA on the sewer system challenges in the Emfuleni Municipality. The Emfuleni Municipality’s sewerage system has had numerous and continues to have interventions to ensure that it is fully functional. Unfortunately, due to ageing infrastructure, often these interment repairs result in other failures on the system in other areas, leading to the health hazards that are caused by the sewerage spillage.

The Sharpeville area is serviced through the Leeuwkuil Waste-Water Treatment Works. This plant is earmarked for upgrading as part of the Sedibeng Regional Sanitation Scheme. The programme includes all lines and pumpstations that convey sewer to the plant. The Department of Water and Sanitation has allocated R117.1 million under the 2021/22 Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant (RBIG) to the Vaal River System Intervention project to upgrade infrastructure and to address the sewer blockages and pollution of the Vaal River.

The participation of the Provincial and National Departments on these intervention programme has addressed some of the challenges, an example being the completion of the Module 6 Waste-Water Treatment in Sebokeng. Ongoing engagements with the Department Water and Sanitation and various stakeholder such as MISA, DBSA and other such agencies, are currently taking place to address both the short- and long-term intervention plans.

Operational sewer blockages are attended to as-and-when they occur. The Emfuleni Local Municipality has serious constraint with regard to resources however the municipality always attempts to address sewer spillages in order to mitigate health risks and avoid undue inconvenience to its residence.

The existing pumpstation located within Sharpeville was refurbished and repaired in 2018/2019 financial year. The pumpstation is sometimes non-functional due to electrical interruptions and other related operational challenges however, these challenges are attended to by the operational personnel as-and-when required.

Reply:

1. Private sector stakeholders have engaged the department and agreed to provide technical assistance of varying nature in respect of the work of the District Hubs

(a) The stakeholders are among others, the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA), the United Nations and the Public/Private Growth Initiative (PPGI).

(b) The DBSA has been appointed as the implementing agent for the District Development Model on behalf of the department. The remaining stakeholders provide capacity building opportunities and technical support in their respective areas of expertise.

We have no formal agreements with individual volunteers at this early stage.

2. A memorandum of agreement has been signed with the DBSA. Memoranda of understanding have been finalized with United Nations; National Business Institute (NBI) detailing length of the respective agreements; roles and responsibilities; governance structures; and other legalities.

The District Development Model is inclusive in its approach to ensure that we bring stakeholders outside the department. In this regard the department continues to explore partnerships in support of the implementation of the District Development Model.

Reply:

The ESKOM Technical Task Team that was established as an interdepartmental and intergovernmental platform to facilitate the discussion and resolution on matters relating to outstanding payments and debt owed to ESKOM. The Task Team resolved that an Ombudsman must be appointed to process and verify the amount of debt owed by organs of state to municipalities, and in turn the debt owed by municipalities to Eskom, Water Boards, Department of Water and Sanitation Trading Entity.

As the custodian of the Intergovernmental Relations Framework (IGRFA) Act 13 of 2005, my Department was tasked to initiate and facilitate the appointment of an Ombudsman. The Department obtained advice from its Legal Services Unit and the Unit dealing with intergovernmental relations on the feasibility of appointing an Ombudsman to act as an intergovernmental dispute facilitator. It was concluded that such an appointment would not be feasible as the IGRFA makes specific reference to an “Intergovernmental Dispute Facilitator” with key responsibilities that are different to the definition and role of an Ombudsman.

The Technical Task Team endorsed the establishment of a panel of intergovernmental dispute facilitators instead. Given the technical nature of the disputes, such a panel will comprise of senior officials from member departments and stakeholder entities making up the ESKOM Technical Task Team.

This process is now underway and the department of COTGTA has also developed the terms of reference that will frame the functioning of such panel which was approved and endorsed by the Technical Task Team.

Reply:

1. What is the position of her department regarding the appeal by the Makana Local Municipality and the Provincial Executive of the Eastern Cape to appeal the judgment of the Grahamstown High Court to dissolve the Council;

I cannot comment on the matter regarding the appeal by the Municipality and Provincial Executive because it is in the courts at the moment to deal with concerns about the interpretation and application of vitally important provisions of the Constitution.

2. whether she has been informed of the numerous service delivery issues affecting the residents of the Makana Local Municipality, including landfill management, water availability, road repairs and sewerage leaks, which have not been resolved and for which numerous court cases have found against the municipality, resulting in several criminal cases being opened against the mayor and the municipal manager; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so,

I am aware of the service delivery challenges facing the municipality. The Department is providing support to the Municipality to deal with some of the challenges while building capacity for the municipality. These challenges are also compounded by the drought conditions and dilapidated infrastructure that has been prevalent for over five years to date.

The challenges were escalating at a very high pace, which led to the Municipal Manager (MM), Mr M Mene to convene various special council meetings to address service delivery matters since 2019. These meetings were attended by several stakeholders representing the residents of the Makana Municipality and representatives of government departments. In these meetings it was resolved that the Water Crisis Disaster Management Plan should be compiled outlining interventions to mitigate the water crisis in the area. A Water Crisis Joint Operations Committee (WCJOC) was established to develop and implement the Disaster Management Plan.

The WCJOC is mandated to invite stakeholders at an ad hoc basis to assist with the implementation of the Disaster Management Plans. The WCJOC described above is a decision making and planning entity whose primary goal is to limit and contain the impact of the current disaster situation to the community. The Committee still meets every week in the Makhanda Municipality to assess and get update on the responses to the water crisis and provision of basic infrastructure.

WATER AVAILABILITY:

The Makana Local Municipality is one the heavily affect municipalities by drought conditions. As a result, Makhanda community relies only on the water supply from mostly Glen Melville Dam that is on the Fish River Catchment. This water is treated in the James Kleynhans Water Treatment Works (JKWTW), treating 10Ml/d. The other source is rather unreliable due to the low dam Levels (about 25%) and can only treat about 5Ml/d relative to its full capacity of 7.5Ml/d. The normal daily demand for Makhanda is 18Ml/d and that puts a burden as the demand is higher than supply. As a result, they are currently implementing water restrictions between 20h00 to 05h00 every day. To ensure reliable water supply, the following infrastructure projects are currently being implemented:

(i) Supply and Installation of 2 Pumpset for JKWTW to enable pumping redundancy so to avoid unnecessary water supply disturbance,

(ii) Replacement of Asbestos pipelines with PVC pipe Phase 1 and Phase 2 to help with reduction of pipe leakages,

(iii) Water Conservation and Water Demand Management Phase 2 and 3, this is to assist with early pipe leak detection and reduction of water losses,

(iv) Installation and replacement of old Zonal Water Meters to help with monitoring of water usage.

MISA is providing technical support relating to civil work on infrastructure and the electrical engineer is normally on site at the James Kleynhans Water Treatment Works. The support is also given to municipality on MIG projects planning, implementation and monitoring processes and to ensure the development of response plan to service delivery challenges.

The National Department of Cooperative Governance allocated MIG funding to deal with all the persistence service delivery challenges including water and sanitation challenges.

SEWER:

(i) Upgrade of Mayfield Gravity Sewer is underway to enable smooth transportation of sewerage to the treatment works therefore unlocking bottlenecks on the sanitation conveyance system, especially after the completion of the upgrade of Makana Sewer Pump Stations.

(ii) Makana Bulk Sewer Treatment Works is being upgraded to unlocking bottlenecks on the sanitation upgrade that enable smooth transportation of sewerage to the conveyance system, especially after the completion of the Upgrade of Makana Sewer Pump Stations.

ROADS:

(i) Upgrade of Ncame Street: This will focus on the main taxi route and therefore improving the state of the roads, and

(ii) Resurfacing of Somerset, High, New and Hill Street to reduce and improve roads infrastructure

MISA has provided funding for the rehabilitation and maintenance of roads. This includes Grahamstown CBD road, Somerset, Hill and New Road.

(3) What action will she take to ensure that the residents of Makana receive the services they are entitled to:

The above processes taken by the Municipality will ensure that reliable and quality services are rendered to the residents. Also with the completion of the above mentioned projects, Makana will have more sustainable and reliable provision of services putting more emphasis on operations and maintenance as a result of the aged infrastructure.

(4) Whether she will consider invoking section 139(7) of the Constitution, read with sections 139(1)(c) and 139(5), given the failure of the Provincial Executive to adequately deal with their obligations in this regard; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details? NW829E

The invocation of section 139(1), (4) and (5) of the Constitution are a prerogative of the provincial executives. On the other hand, section 139(7) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 follows from lack of or inadequate invocation of a mandatory section 139(4) or (5) of the Constitution. Section 139(7) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 provides that if a provincial executive cannot or does not adequately exercise the powers or perform the functions referred to it in subsection 139(4) and (5) of the Constitution, the national executive must intervene in the stead of relevant provincial executive.

The interventions invoked in terms of the two subsections (4) and (5) of section 139 of the Constitution are mandatory financial interventions, and the provincial executives must invoke these subsections if the municipalities satisfy the criteria outlined in those two subsections. The only time when the national executive may intervene in these scenarios are when:

(i) the provincial executive cannot, or

(ii) the provincial executive does not, or

(iii) the provincial executive does not adequately exercise the powers or perform the functions referred to in subsection (4) or (5) of section 139 of the Constitution, then the national executive must intervene in the stead of the provincial executive.

A regulatory framework on interventions will provide further detailed obligatory criteria on the invocation of section 139(7) of the Constitution by the national executive.

Reply:

1. Yes, drought relief funds were provided by the Department of Cooperative

Governance (DCOG) during the national financial year 2017/2018 to (a) Ndlambe Local Municipality, (b) Makana Local Municipality and (c) no funds were provided to Ngqushwa Local Municipality.

(i) The total amounts provided to the municipalities were as follows:

• Ndlambe Local Municipality – R950 000
• Makana Local Municipality – R810 000

(ii) The intended purpose for funds allocated to Ndlambe and Makana Local Municipalities was for drought intervention projects, particularly the recommissioning of boreholes and related water infrastructure that were not functional within the municipalities.

2. the reports from both municipalities indicated that the funds were used for the intended purposes for drought interventions within the municipality;

3. the projects for which the funds were intended were completed successfully as per the reports submitted by the municipalities;

4. the DCOG continues to support all municipalities within the country, including the mentioned municipalities through normal existing departmental programme, particularly the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) regarding annual funding allocations for water and sanitation infrastructure for development and service delivery enhancement within the municipalities.

 

Reply:

No, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) does not make use of private security firms. All security officers at DIRCO Head office are employed full time by the Department. The security staff complement comprises of 88 security officers who work through a shift system that has been negotiated with organised labour though the Departmental Bargaining Chamber.

The security services at DIRCO’s three State Protocol Lounges (OR Tambo, King Shaka and Cape Town International airports), are offered by Airports Company South Africa and the South African Police Service.

However, South African Missions abroad require security services, so in this case private security firms are used. Due to the limited number of personnel that DIRCO can deploy, missions rely on private security firms for security.

 

Reply:

a) Councillors, as public representatives and as members of municipal councils, must adhere to a Code of Conduct for Councillors and must ensure strict compliance with all legislation when performing their responsibilities. The Municipal Structures Act presently provides for the establishment of portfolio committees to deal with specific focus areas, as well as an oversight committee, commonly referred to as the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPACs). The functions of the MPAC are to, in the main, review reports of the Auditor-General, the management committee, and the audit committee, and to then make recommendations to the municipal council on any matter affecting the municipality. The MPAC is also required to initiate and develop the oversight report on the annual report of the municipality, as required in terms of section 129 of the Municipal Finance Management Act.

b) Metropolitan and local municipalities that have established ward committees also use these committees to attend to community concerns and complaints. Ward committees are community representative structures meant to serve as official participatory structures in municipalities. These committees are chaired by ward councilors and serve as formal communication channels between the community and municipal councils. Ward committees are constituted by diverse interest groups to ensure inclusion of all sectors and vulnerable groups such as youth, women, religious groups, senior citizens, and community-based organizations. The Department supports the functionality of these structures through disbursement of the Local Government Equitable Share to cover Out of Pocket expenses for qualifying municipalities, capacity building for ward committee members and monitors the functionality of these structures on an on-going basis. In the absence of the ward councillor, members of the ward committees become a bridge between the municipality and communities.

In addition to ward committees, the Department is rolling-out GovChat, a social media-based community engagement platform that is implemented through an Open Government Partnership. Through GovChat, users can drop a location pin or physical address to know their public representative/ward councillor, lodge municipal service requests as well as rate and report service delivery in government facilities. The platform allows the public to lodge complaints and receive real-time feedback. Such will include service delivery complaints, non-adherence to covid-19 regulations as well as gender-based violence and femicide.

Reply:

a) The Department has not failed to pay the NPOs nor has it failed to honor its contractual obligations. During the last 3 years, our Department has received negative audit findings. Most of these findings were linked to the process by which monies were transferred to the NPOs. This was largely due to the NPO’s poor accountability for the transfers made to them. As a result of this, we have strengthened our financial processes, and every rand disbursed is accounted for before further disbursements are made. We are working with some of the NPO and implementing agents that are still struggling to reconcile their accounts. The NPOs, however, are fully engaged and aware what the outstanding issues are.

b) The monies owed will be settled with each Implementing agent once they have complied with the Service Level Agreement signed with them and submitted the requisite documents to enable the department to pay. All monies transferred to partnering NPOs need to be accounted for in full as prescribed by the relevant NPO Transfer protocols.

Reply:

National Assembly Written Reply: 310 of 2021

a) The Department of Social Development is working with the Department of Basic Education on the ECD Function shift process. Both Departments recently briefed the Joint Portfolio Committees of Basic Education and Social Development, who noted the progress made by both departments in terms of the migration process and further called for a joint workshop to better understand the processes in terms of the policies and programmes of the ECD sector and the work being done by both departments to ensure that there is quality ECD services and support, being provided to the sector.

The following progress has been made in this regard:

(i) Diagnostic review: ECD diagnosis, validation and review Session with provinces were conducted to get a better sense of the status of ECDs and to determine the principles that would underpin the migration process. The findings thereof formed the basis for the establishment of 7 interdepartmental technical teams that are key in the migration process. These technical teams are;

(1) Human resources and Labour relations, (2) Finance and budgets,

(3) Legal and contracts,

(4) Movable and immovable assets,

(5) Data, information, monitoring & Evaluation,

(6) Stakeholder management and communication, and

(7) ECD programme implementation.

Governance structures: In addition to the 7 technical teams that have been established, an inter-departmental Project Management Team has been established and meets weekly. These structures have been decentralised at provincial level. In addition, the DGs meet on a monthly basis and joint meetings between Heads of Department of Basic Education and Social Development are held at least monthly to gauge progress with regards to each of the workstreams.

Legal and contracts: Concurrence was reached between the two departments regarding the scope of the function shift. Final proclamations, the President’s Minute and the President’s Note have been sent to the Office of the Chief State Law Advisor. Provincial proclamations have been shared with the State Law advisors in the provinces.

Human Resources (HR) and Labour relations: Both the departments have concluded arrangements HR at national level. The process of identification of human resources to be shifted with the function at provincial level is at different level due to its complexity. The social workers are generalists and are performing a range of functions in addition to ECD function. Progress in this regard is uneven, it differs from province to province.

Finance and budget: The budget lines that could follow the function has been identified and it includes grants & subsidies budget; Non Profit Organisation transfer budget; and capital asset budget. The budget relating to HR will be finalised after the HR matter has been finalised.

Data, information, monitoring & Evaluation: Identified databases, information systems, strategies and other information sets, programmes used to manage the function and analysed data on the scale of ECD provision in all provinces.

Stakeholder management and communication: The stakeholder engagement plan and communication strategy has been developed.

(ii) below are the envisaged timeframes the teams are working towards the implementation processes of ECD migration:

(b) The framework has been developed but cannot be availed as it is not yet for public consumption.

Reply:

The Honourable Member is requested to note that the Government has engaged with Mr. Khoi-San SA and the accompanying Khoi-San group since their arrival at the Union Buildings towards the end of 2018, with a view to update them on how the issues they have raised were being addressed. The group raised the following complex matters which cannot be resolved overnight, but various departments have since been seized with them;

a) Introduction of the Khoi-San languages in schools in all provinces;

b) Access to land for the Khoi-San through finalisation of land claims that they submitted 22 years ago;

c) Recognition of Khoi-San as a group and as opposed to classifying them as Coloureds; and ensuring that they will participate in Census 2021 under that categorisation and not as Coloureds;

d) Review the Traditional Courts Act’s jurisdiction to include the Khoi and San;

e) Declaration of the place where Mr. Adam Kok died as a heritage site; and

f) Renaming of the Port Elizabeth Airport after one of the Khoi-San leaders.

The relevant details of the responses are attached hereto as Annexure A.

Annexure A

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

QUESTION FOR WRITTEN REPLY

QUESTION NUMBER 362

DATE OF PUBLICATION: 19 FEBRUARY 2020

a) Introduction of the Khoi-San languages in schools in all provinces:

Government has previously reported on the ground-breaking work done by the Pan South African Language Board (PANSALB) to support the development and use of Khoi-San languages. This included the development of a Khoekhoegowab Glossarium which remains a valuable reference for language teaching, language acquisition and use, promotion, preservation and maintenance.

PanSALB is adapting the Khoekhoegowab Orthography rules into Nama Spelling and Orthography rules in order to train educators who will be able to educate children on the language and culture of the Khoi-San people. The San language is being gradually introduced in schools in the Northern Cape Province. The Department of Basic Education (DBE), in preparation for introducing the Nama language in schools with speakers of the language, developed the Grades 4-6 Toolkit. The Toolkit is being made available in the Nama language and the availability of the Toolkit is one of DBE’s concrete measures towards ensuring that the Nama language is offered in the schools.

b) Access to land for the Khoi-San through finalisation of land claims that they submitted 22 years ago:

Regarding the finalisation of land claims, this is work that is administered by the Department of Agriculture Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD), and through its various programmes, the Department has confirmed that the Khoi-San communities have successfully claimed land in many provinces. Where there are enquiries about specific claims on which feedback may not have been received, such details should be provided to DALRRD for follow up and actioning as appropriate.

c) Recognition of Khoi-San as a group as opposed to classifying them as Coloureds; and ensuring that they will participate in Census 2021 under that categorisation and not as Coloureds:

The group raised concerns with the usage of the word Coloured as they deemed it offensive and derogatory. They therefore demanded that it be scrapped and replaced with what they regard as a more appropriate word to describe them, which is Khoi-San. However, we cannot ignore the fact that in our country there are people who self- identify as Coloured. Scrapping the word ‘coloured’ can therefore not just be a unilateral decision of government given the profound implications this may have for those who self-identify as coloured. However, for purposes of the country’s next Census, Statistics South Africa has advised that the manner in which the question on race is posed will allow people to classify themselves in whichever group they identify with. Those who classify themselves as Khoi-San will thus indicate that and be coded as such.

d) Review the Traditional Courts Act’s jurisdiction to include the Khoi-San:

Regarding the demand on Traditional Courts, the Traditional Courts Bill, 2017(the Bill) is currently still before Parliament. This Bill was adopted by the Select Committee on Justice and Security on 18 November 2020. The Bill defines a traditional court as follows:

“traditional court’’ means a customary institution or structure, which is constituted and functions in terms of customary law, for purposes of resolving disputes, in accordance with constitutional imperatives and this Act, and which is referred to in the different official languages as—

(a) ‘‘eBandla’’ in isiNdebele;

(b) ‘‘Huvo’’ in Xitsonga;

(c) ‘‘Inkundla’’ in isiZulu;

(d) ‘‘iNkhundla’’ in siSwati;

(e) ‘‘iNkundla‘‘in isiXhosa;

(f) ‘‘Kgoro’’ in Sepedi;

(g) ‘‘Kgotla’’ in Sesotho;

(h) ‘‘Khoro’’ in Tshivenda;

(i) ‘‘Kgotla’’ in Setswana; and

(j) a tribunal for Khoi-San communities.

This definition recognises fora that may be existent in Khoi-San communities even if it is not called a traditional court but is a forum where disputes are resolved in the community. Therefore, Khoi-San communities will not be excluded from the operation of the Bill when it is finally enacted. However, should there still be concerns about the Bill, these should be raised through the transparent and participatory processes that underpin the manner in which Parliament works.

e) Declaration of the place where Adam Kok died as a heritage site:

On the demand to declare the grave of the late Adam Kok II as a heritage site, government has undoubtedly demonstrated its recognition of this great leader who is known to have fought against colonial encroachment in the central western regions of South Africa. As part of Heritage Day celebrations in 2018, our country witnessed the unveiling of a statue of Adam Kok II in Kokstad by the acting President at time, His Excellency Mr David Mabuza. The Department of Sports Arts and Culture will engage the South African Heritage Resources Agency to consider the grading and declaration of the graves of the late Adam Kok II and Adam Kok I.

This will be done within the context of the Khoi and San Heritage Route Project as well as the Resistance and Liberation Heritage Route Projects which are led by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. The National Khoi and San Heritage Route is a national legacy project whose implementation was approved by Cabinet in June 2020. The route will identify, highlight, conserve, and promote the heritage of the Khoi, Nama, Griqua, Khorana, and San. This project contributes towards the acknowledgment of the previously neglected and marginalised South African communities.

f) Renaming of the Port Elizabeth Airport after one of the Khoi-San leaders:

On the possible renaming of the Port Elizabeth Airport after one of the Khoi-San leaders, the Department wishes to indicate that strides have been made in this regard. As from Tuesday, 23 February 2021, the Port Elizabeth Airport has been renamed by the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture and will from now on be known as Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport.

Government will continue to implement all these and other critical programmes to ensure that the plight of the Khoi-San communities is addressed.

End.

Reply:

1. (a) The DALRRD’s requested the National Treasury to retain the surplus from the 2019/20 financial year due to underspending on a number of projects for the following reasons.

• Recapitalisation and development projects: Non- Accountability of previous disbursements.

• Guarantees on Land Acquisition: The DALRRD indicated that there were lengthy negotiations on some projects between sellers of land and the department which concluded at the end of quarter 3 and beginning of quarter 4. After conclusion of agreements, the projects had to go for conveyancing and registration process by Deeds Office which delayed the payments.

• Contracted one Hectare one Household projects: were not completed due to slow mobilization of the projects due to lengthy stakeholder consultation process, and disputes amongst beneficiaries.

• Contracted Land Development Support: The DALRRD indicated that they had to request Section 66 and Section 72 approvals (PFMA restrictions on borrowing, guarantees and other commitments) from the National Treasury to enter into contracts with ABSA and FNB for the purpose of mitigating the risk of farmers misusing the funds as experienced in the past with the Recapitalization and Development Programme (RADP) program. The approval was granted during December 2019. A team of agricultural engineers from former the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) were assembled and deployed to the farms to reassess the infrastructure. Transfers were made after receipt of the assessment reports of relevant infrastructure required on farms, and some of these project assessments were only concluded during the 2020/21 financial year.

• Contracted forensic audit: delays due to ongoing forensic audit. The DALRRD indicated that the amount would be paid after close up report is received on forensic audit performed. The expenditure was expected to be disbursed within 30 days after receipt of invoice.

• Open orders: Valuations for land acquisition projects not yet concluded at the end of the financial year.

• Further ALHA received an additional R277 million towards the end of March 2020 (end of 2019/20 financial year) for COVID-19 Disaster Fund.

2. 

(b) The DALRRD, did not provide any proposed spending changes. The retained surplus is supposed to be spend during the 2020/21, during which the approval would be valid.

• The DALRRD provided the cash flow / expenditure disbursement terms, which ranges from 2 days after registration of land by Deeds Office; 30 days after receipt of invoice; and some projects expenditure to be disbursed within 1 year.

• The table below indicates the disbursement terms, project values and project terms.

Table 1: List of commitments at the end of 2019/20

Commitment description	Project term (years)	Cash flow disbursement term	Reason for slow spending	Project budget (R’000)	Project Surplus (R’000)
Recapitalisation and Development projects	5	1 year	Non Accountability of previous disbursements	122 436	122 436
Guarantees on Land Acquisition	0.5	2 days after land registration by Deeds	Lengthy negotiations on some projects between seller and department which concluded end of quarter 3 and beginning of quarter 4, after agreement projects have to go for conveyancing and registration process by Deeds Office.	146 436	146 436
Contracted one Hectare one Household projects	unlimited	1 year	Slow mobilization of the projects due to lengthy stakeholder consultation process. Disputes amongst beneficiaries These commitments are mainly second or third tranches, which are earmarked to be finalised this financial year.	28 257	28257
Contracted Land Development Support	5	1 year	The Department had to request Section 66 and Section 72 approvals from Treasury to enter into contracts with ABSA and FNB for the purpose of mitigation the risk of farmers misusing the funds as experienced in the past with the RADP program. The approval was granted during December 2019. A team of Agricultural Engineers from DAFF were assembled and deployed to the farms to reassess the infrastructure. Transfers were made after receipt of the assessment report of relevant infrastructure required on farms. Some of these project assessments were only concluded in the current financial year.	716 990	716 990
Contracted forensic audit	1	I year	Retention amount will be paid after close up report is received on forensic audit performed.	1 710	1 710
Contracted project management	1	30 days after receipt of invoice	Balance for project will be paid after final review and sign off the close up report.	477	477
Open Orders	0.5	30 days after receipt of invoice	Valuations for land acquisition projects not yet concluded.	2 828	2 828
Total				1 019 135	1 019 135

COVID Disaster Fund	0.5	30 days after receipt of invoice	Current financial year, funds received from department during 2019/20.	513 844	513 844
Grand Total				1 532 979	1 532 979

Reply:

(1) In terms of the Firearms Control Act No. 60 of 2000 an annual stock register must be provided to the Central Firearm Registrar at the end of each year. The South African Police Service (SAPS), Division: Firearms, Liquor and 2nd Goods and Central Firearm Registry conduct annual random inspections to confirm full compliance with the Firearms Control Act No. 60 of 2000. The SAPS inspection was last undertaken in September 2019.

(2) The audit conducted by the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department took place over a lengthy period and was eventually concluded. However, as indicated above, this armory audit is conducted in terms of the legislation administered by SAPS and therefore, an accurate account of the audit can be requested from the Ministry of Police.

Background

PQ 195 emanates from PQ 129, which was published on 28 June 2019. Due to the unavailability of the information required to address PQ 129, two follow-up questions were posed by Honourable Waters and Honourable Dr Lotriet. The two questions respectively posed by Honourable Waters and Honourable Dr Lotriet are PQ 507, which was published on 23 August 2019 and PQ 180, which was published on 21 February 2020. In essence, PQ 507 and PQ 180 were a probe on the arms audit in the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, which audit was in progress at the time when these questions were received.

The National Police Commissioner has been informed about the audit, and the national subcommittee has been established to resolve Official Institution’s Firearm related issues and is meeting on a regular basis. The meeting is chaired by Brig Bopape from SAPS’ Central Firearm Registry Unit and co-chaired by Brig Spies from the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) on behalf of all Metro Police Departments.

Based on the outcome of the audit, no action was needed against individuals within the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality since this matter is about the National SAPS Central Firearm Registry and the Official Institution Firearm register that needs to be updated and corrected by the SAPS.

The EMPD is currently updating and modernizing its firearm policy in order to align with various legislative prescripts.

 

 

 

Reply:

In terms of the enabling Legislation of the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), the Compensation Fund (CF) and Supported Employment Enterprises (SEE), the Minister of Labour (now Employment and Labour) appoints a Commissioner and support staff to perform the functions of the Funds and seconds such to the Funds.

As a result of this, it is the Department that is the registered employer and all appointments are made in line with the Public Service Act and accompanying Regulations. The Department therefore performs all payroll functions for the Department, the UIF, CF and SEE as one employer.

In terms of Compensation of Employees (CoE or payroll), the allocation of expenditure is governed by an Organisational Development (OD) exercise determining the functions and the level of such functions performed by positions contained in the approved establishment. This is commonly referred to as the “Approved Percentage Split”. This information is captured against positions on the establishment and is monitored and controlled by the Human Resource Management units within the Department as well as the UIF, CF and SEE.

The establishment is confirmed as being correct at regular intervals as it is this establishment which determines the value of CoE that is expensed against the Vote or alternatively recovered from the respective Fund.

As a result of this symbiotic relationship, the Department reflects an approved establishment of 9,990 on PERSAL however, only expenditure in respect of 2987 positions are expensed against the CoE allocations reflected in the Estimates of National Expenditure, and not 9,990 positions as per the approved establishment.

Reply:

(a) and (b) Yes, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJ&CD), Office of the Chief Justice (OCJ) as well as the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and Legal Aid South Africa make use of private security firms.  The tables below provide details of the security firms per Department and entity reporting to me:

 

1. Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, OCJ and NPA:

MARCH 2021 TO DATE
(i) Name of Security Firms	(ii) Purpose	(iii) Contract value	Duration of specific contract
			Start date	End date
1. Mabotwane Security Services	Security guarding and special services in various offices (DoJ&CD, NPA, OCJ) Gauteng and Western Cape provinces	R118 477 375.20 (Gauteng) R86 775 743.04 (Western Cape)	01 March 2021	28 February 2022
2. Fidelity Security Services	Security guarding and special services in various offices (DoJ&CD, NPA, OCJ) Kwa-Zulu Natal and Eastern Cape provinces	R125 937 824.81 (Kwa-Zulu Natal) R140 116 955.68 (Eastern Cape)	01 March 2021	28 February 2022
3. PhepheMV	Security guarding and special services in various offices (DoJ&CD, NPA, OCJ) Limpopo and North West	R51 288 890.20 (Limpopo) R31 100 672.02 (North West)	01 March 2021	28 February 2022
4. Vhugi Protection Services	Security guarding and special services in various offices (DoJ&CD, NPA, OCJ)  Mpumalanga province and National Offices	R55 987 986.64 (Mpumalanga) R21 757 528.15 (National Offices)	10 March 2021 10 March 2021	28 February 2022 28 February 2022
5. Zacks Business Enterprise	Security guarding and special services in various offices (DoJ&CD, NPA, OCJ) Free State and Northern Cape provinces	R42 028 800.00 (Northern Cape) R76 114 608.48 (Free State)	10 March 2021 11 March 2021	28 February 2022 28 February 2022

 

2. Legal Aid South Africa

Legal Aid SA has 118 contracts relating to security services with private security services providers for 118 of 129 of its offices. Security services of the remaining 11 offices are provided by respective landlords. The offices are made up of 64 local offices, 64 satellite offices and National office. The majority (115) of contracts are for alarm monitoring and armed responses and three (3) are for physical guarding of fixed properties and immovables at the National office and two (2) of its local offices. The total value of the contracts is R5 898 807, 38 with the average durations of 36 months. The table below provides a summary of the security contracts.

Profile of Legal Aid SA security contracts profile
Region	Physical		Alarm monitoring		Total			Average duration of the contract
	Number of contracts	Total value of the contracts (Rands)	Number of contracts	Total value of the contracts (Rands)	Number of contracts	Total value of the contracts (Rands)
National Office	1	3 737 009,50	0	-	1	3 737 009,50		36 months
KZN	0	-	21	295 898,99	21	295 898,99		36 months
Limpopo	0	-	25	454 297,82	25	454 297,82		36 months
WCNC	0	-	21	232 322,38	21	232 322,38		36 months
Gauteng	2	407 870,87	13	249 924,41	15	657 795,28		36 months
EC	0	-	17	256 191,17	17	256 191,17		36 months
FS	0	-	18	265 292,24	18	265 292,24		36 months
Total	3	4 144 880,37	115	1 753 927,01	118	5 898 807,38

 

A detailed spreadsheet with the name of each firm, purpose, value and duration of each contract is attached as Annexure A.

 

3. Special Investigating Unit

 

Region	Description	Appointed Service Provider	Value	Duration
				Start Date	End Date
1. Durban Office	Security Guards Services at SIU Durban Office for a period of 10 Months	Stallion Security (Pty) Ltd	R396,858.53	1 June 2020	30 May 2021
2. Nelspruit Office	Security guard Services for Nelspruit Office for a period of 12 months	Fidelity Security Group (Pty)Ltd	R342,233.40	1 August 2020	31 Jul 2021
3. Bloemfontein Office	Appointment of security guard services for Bloemfontein office and for a period of 10 months	Fidelity Security Group (Pty)Ltd	R287,500.00	3 August 2020	2 May 2021
4. Mahikeng Office	Appointment of service provider to render security guard services for Mahikeng office	Mminatlou Security and Projects	R466,273.08	1 September 2020	31 August 2021
5. Mthatha Office	Appointment of service provider to render security services for Mthatha office	Tyeks Security Services (Pty)Ltd	R408,910.22	8 October 2020	7 October 2021
6. Pretoria Office	Appointment of service provider to render security guard services for Pretoria office for a 12 months period	Lenong Security Services cc	R315,608.16	1 January 2021	31 December 2021
7. Polokwane Office	Appointment of service provider to render security guard services for Polokwane office for a 12 months period	Eager Beaver Projects(Pty)Ltd	R238,146.00	01 November 2020	31 October 2021
8. East London	Provision of Grade C Security Guards (Unarmed) for the SIU East London Office for a period of Ten (10) months.	Xhobani Cleaning and Security Services	R497 927.00	01 February 2021	30 November 2021
9. Bloemfontein Office	Provision of armed close protectors for SIU employee on very high risk investigation, after SAPS security assessment recommendation	Arcangel Group	R277,828.50	29 January 2021	28 April 2021

 

4. Information Regulator

The Information Regulator does not use private security firms. Security services of the work premises are provided by the Landlord.

Reply:

National Treasury has not received nor approved any requests for deviations from procurement processes from the Department of Human Settlements (DHS) or Department of Water & Sanitation (DWS) for the procurement of personal protective equipment from Travel with Flair (2004/028611/07) for the period 1 January 2020 to 31 January 2021.

The National Treasury does, however, notice the Covid-19 transactions that were reported by DHS against Travel with Flair to the amount of R939 349.00. These transactions were undertaken by the authority of the accounting officer and not as a result of any deviation that NT approved.

National Treasury did not find any transactions for DWS against Travel with Flair on the Covid-19 Reporting Dashboard.

Human Settlements – Extract from the Covid-19 Reporting Dashboard

Reply:

(1)(a) There are currently no shelters for the homeless operating in the Hantam Local Municipality. During Level 5 Lockdown shelters were operational in Calvinia and Brandvlei respectively. Buildings at the Sport Grounds were utilized. A total of thirteen (13) individuals made use of the services during this time, (11 in Calvinia and 2 in Brandvlei). Upon investigation, it was found that eleven (11) of the beneficiaries were residents of the area, but were refused accommodation with their families, where they usually reside, due to disruptive behaviour. Family preservation services were rendered, and all persons were re-united with their families within three(3) months. Two (2) of the residents were from outside the Northern-Cape and were transported back to Pretoria and the Eastern Cape, respectively, as soon as restrictions on travel were relaxed.

(1)(b) No assistance or services are currently required.

(2)(a)(b) No shelters for the homeless are currently operational.

(3) No shelters for the homeless are currently operational in the Province. The approach of the Department of Social Development is to render psycho-social and family reunification services. If cases are reported the circumstances under which an adult male would report himself as homeless will be investigated. In most cases it is found that he has accommodation, but due to conflict or unacceptable behaviour could no longer stay there. Through family group conferences and other interventions, the matter is usually resolved and there is no need for accommodation in a shelter.

There are six (6) shelters available for women who need temporary shelter, or became homeless due to violence. Support and counselling are given in order to return these victims to a safe family environment as soon as possible. All these shelters are operational and funded by the Department of Social Development.

In cases of homeless children, one of the ten (10) funded Child and Youth care Centres are utilized for the placement of these children - if they cannot be returned to their families.

Maintaining shelters in the Province (at least one per District) will require a large budget. If only one (1) shelter is operational, beneficiaries might have to be transported up to 800 km to stay at a shelter for a few days, which is also not cost effective.

The number of adult males (the target group of shelters) reporting to be homeless is very low, and matters relating to their temporary housing problems can usually be resolved in a short space of time. The available budget in the Province will be much better utilized by funding existing VEP Shelters and Child and Youth Care Centres.

Reply:

a) The number of employees found to be possibly conducting business with the State was 482 at the end of February 2021, with eight (8) employees reported to be conducting business with the State in an official capacity (thus, having been appointed by a competent authority, as allowed in terms of Public Service Regulations, 2016, regulations 13(c)).

	A	D
	Departments	Number of Public Servants listed on CSD conducting business with an organ of state as at end of January 2021
1	KwaZulu-Natal	39
2	Gauteng	42
3	North West	13
4	Eastern Cape	71
5	Limpopo	41
6	Mpumalanga	43
7	Free State	25
8	Northern Cape	72
9	Western Cape	18
	Total Provincial Departments	364
	Total National Departments	126
	Grand Total	482 (8 in official capacity)

b) The specified:

(i) Employees disciplined:

Referred for disciplinary hearings	37 cases in the South African Police Service (SAPS); One (1) case in the Department of Social Development; Five (5) cases in the Department of Employment and Labour; and 11 cases in the Northern Cape Department of Health.
Outcome of disciplinary hearing	One (1) employee was suspended for three months without pay at the Department of Employment and Labour.
Criminal charges introduced	12 cases were referred for criminal charges in the SAPS.

(ii) hearings resulted in the dismissal of employees: To date there are no employees who were reported to be dismissed from their respective departments due to involvement in the conducting of business with the State.

End

Reply:

	Department: DWYPD	Entity: NYDA
(a)	Yes, Her office makes use of private security firm.
(b)	N/A	Yes, the NYDA makes use of a private security firm:
(i)	Idlangamandla Security Protection & Project cc	Rise Security Services (Pty) LTD
(ii)	The purpose is to provide physical (guarding) services to protect the DWYPD infrastructure and assets.	The purpose is to provide physical security services to twenty-one (21) NYDA branch offices and thirty-one (31) district offices in terms of access control, guarding, alarm services and emergency response to protect the NYDA infrastructure and assets.
(iii)	R2 378 660, 48	R18 551 388.66
(iv)	24 months from 01 January 2021 – December 2022	36 months from 1 November 2019 to 31 October 2022.

_________________________

Approved by Minister

Ms M Nkoana-Mashabane, MP

Date _____________________

Reply:

1. Telkom terminated the service of the 0800 call centre number as a result of the non-extension of the telephone line contract. 
2. This was resolved on the 4th March 2021 and the call centre was fully operational from the afternoon of 4 March 2021. 

Reply:

All legislations and policy frameworks related to Public Procurement resides with the Ministry of Finance.

Reply:

a) The draft Bill that the Department is developing will guide inter alia, the establishment of the NCGBVF, which will outline the details of the model in line with the Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) NSP and the declaration.

b) The process to establish the National Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Council requires enactment of a founding legislation first. The department is in the process of developing the draft Bill.

___________________________

Approved by:

Ms M Nkoana-Mashabane, MP

Minister

Date:

Reply:

Section 22 (4) of the COID Act indicates that compensation will be considered for accidents that has ‘arisen out of and in the course of employment’. The Compensation Fund does not consider claims for accidents that occurred during the journey to and from work if they do not meet “arising out of and in the course of employment”.

Section 22 (5) does provide for consideration of claims in the event of accidents that have arisen where the employer provides free transportation to commute to and from work for the purposes of employment.

However, the Fund does not keep information in such a way that we can distinguish motor vehicle accident claims between those where it was transport provided by the employer to and from work as well as those that occurred while the worker was executing his/her duties.

Reply:

a) It is worth noting that there is reasonable progress in some of the interventions of the NSP on GBVF. However, reporting on progress has been mainly based on outputs of activities rather than outcomes. The NSP on GBVF is still in its early stages of implementation and outcomes and impact takes time.

b) The department has been working with national departments, provinces, districts and local municipalities towards integration of NSP on GBVF priorities in strategic plans. As part of localising the NSP on GVBF, provinces are working on their implementation plans and establishing structures aligned to the principles of the NSP on GBVF with the guidance of the department. The department is also conducting information sessions across all nine provinces. Between February and March 2021 eight (8) provinces have been covered with KwaZulu-Natal being the only outstanding province.

___________________________

Approved by:

Ms M Nkoana-Mashabane, MP

Minister

Date:

Reply:

1. The irregular expenditure cases are being investigated in line with the Irregular Expenditure Framework issued by the National Treasury in 2019. Upon finalization of these investigations, reports will be considered by the Loss Control and Asset Disposal Committee whereafter recommendations will be submitted to the Accounting Officer for further processing. At this stage, the department is not yet at the stage where it can concisely indicate how many cases will be recommended for condonement, and how many will be recommended for recovery in instances where loss was suffered by the department.

2. The final determination of irregular expenditure and the related outcomes such as recovery, condonement and consequence management can only be concluded once the investigation reports are finalized. These reports are currently being finalized.

Reply:

The Department of Employment and Labour maintains statistics of registered local and foreign nationals for the purposes of Unemployment Insurance Fund collection and payments, those who were recommended for individual or corporate work visas, Compensation Fund collection and payments and for monitoring transformation in the labour market through our Employment Equity Reports.

The Economic Sectors are broad and may not necessarily align with Honourable van der Merwe’s list as it also contains economic sub-sectors and or industries.

Our statistics may not provide a true picture of the total number of people employed in some of the economic sectors and sub-sectors as it is not possible to maintain statistics of those that are not registered especially undocumented foreign nationals.

Reply:

a) The first Determination for the payment of headmen/women was issued in February 2014 and required such payments to apply with effect from April 2013. According to the Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN) Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), due to budgetary constraints the province was only able to start paying headmen/women in line with this Determination as from December 2016. There is thus a backlog of outstanding payments for the period April 2013 to November 2016.

b) The KZN Department of Cogta points out that it is not in a position to estimate or speculate as to when the matter may be heard in Court for the following reasons:

1. It is a Respondent in the matter and, accordingly, is not dominus litis (the initiator of the proceedings). It is the responsibility of the party who initiated the litigation to ensure that the matter is heard as early as possible;
2. Even then, the scheduling of matters is the prerogative of the High Court, which is informed by the number of cases requiring to be set down, their state of readiness to be heard, the availability of Judges, amongst other factors.

Reply:

SASSA has not lost any money as a result of cash in transit heists. Over the past 5 years, there have been two payment contractors. For the period from 2016 to 2018, payments were made by Cash Paymaster Services and for the period from 2018 to date, social grant disbursement services have been made by the South African Post Office.

In terms of the contracts entered into, the contracted service providers have to carry insurance against losses as a result of cash in transit heists. The risk is therefore transferred from SASSA to the service providers.

Reply:

1. The Department is not aware of officials who have been accused of acting with impunity in their maltreatment of inmates at Mangaung as well at Leeuwkop Correctional Centres. The offenders at Mangaung have access to JICS officials or platform to raise complaints and requests, including cases of assaults by officials. Departmental officials are employed to manage compliance with the Contract between Department of Correctional Services (DCS) and G4S Company.

The allegations in respect to Leeuwkop Maximum, this may have arisen from an incident where the DCS National Task Team conducted a search operation on 01 December 2020. All complaints emanating from this search operation were handled by the Head of Centre and the Independent Correctional Centre Visitor (ICCV) in line with the Complaints and Request Procedure of the DCS. The affected offenders were referred for medical examination and the South African Police Service (SAPS) were called for those who chose to lay criminal charges. The matter was also investigated by JICS.

(2) Yes, the Department has been in communication with the Department of Health and offenders are prioritised under phase 02 as Communicated by the President.

The following are other activities regarding vaccination rollout in Correctional Facilities:

• Training of DCS nurses that commenced from the 15 - 27 Jan 2021 by the National Department of Health was conducted;
• Vaccination fridges for the storage of vaccines and carriers for vaccine from the Pharmacy to the vaccine site are in the process of being procured.
• A list of consumable items was finalised and the pharmacy is in the process of procuring items that are not in stock; and
• Emergency medical services are available for management of emergency response.

END

Reply:

The Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities has regularly indicated its concern with the use of consultants by the department due to budgetary constraints.

It must be emphasised that due to budgetary cuts, especially in the allocation for compensation of employees, it has impacted on the ability of the Department to recruit and hire suitably technically skilled persons to carry out certain specific tasks and activities. Unfortunately the Department has been placed in a situation where it is forced to use short-term, temporary skilled personnel to assist in these areas of work.

One such area is in the development of an evidence-based knowledge portal, which requires high technical skills in conceptualising and developing a model for an electronic platform. Furthermore there is also an element of IT Skills that are needed to develop and undertake the back-end processes of such an electronic platform. These skills are not available within the current personnel in the department. Thus the Department has been working with the University of Johannesburg since 2019 towards this end. However due to the budget reprioritisation process redirecting government spending towards the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, this project was reprioritised for implementation in the 2021/22 financial year.

In order to reduce the use of consultants, the Department has also embarked on collaborative efforts with UN agencies in an effort to increase its capacity on areas that requires technical expertise. Two technical experts have been secured from UNFPA in respect of the development of a comprehensive M&E framework for the Sanitary Dignity programme, and the development of a comprehensive M&E Framework for the National Strategic Plan on Gender Based Violence & Femicide.

It must be noted that in the use of these external technical expertise in these three programmes of the department, there is a level of ongoing skills transfer as well. However in achieving the majority of the targets in the Annual Performance Plan, the Department has been undertaking the work in-house, and meeting the necessary quarterly targets. The Department is therefore on course to meet its targets for the year with the work done by the officials in the department itself.

_________________________

Approved by Minister

Ms M Nkoana-Mashabane, MP

Date _____________________

Reply:

1(a) The total number of children in payment in December 2020 without birth certificates was 24 756.

(b) The numbers per province are indicated below:

 

Province	Number
Eastern Cape	1 967
Free State	161
Gauteng	14 696
KwaZulu-Natal	1 637
Limpopo	275
Mpumalanga	584
Northern Cape	358
North West	99
Western Cape	4 979

2(a) The total number of children in payment in January 2021 without birth certificates was

28 178.

(b) The numbers per province are indicated below:

 

Province	Number
Eastern Cape	2 064
Free State	418
Gauteng	15 852
KwaZulu-Natal	2 080
Limpopo	353
Mpumalanga	665
Northern Cape	1 124
North West	193
Western Cape	5 429

3(a) The total number of grants for these children which were lapsed at the end of December were 1 792.

(b) The breakdown per province is as follows:

Province	Number
Eastern Cape	73
Free State	155
Gauteng	358
KwaZulu-Natal	302
Limpopo	37
Mpumalanga	32
Northern Cape	87
North West	575
Western Cape	173

4. Applications for social grants are accepted, where the applicant does not have the required critical documents, The applications are conditionally approved, with the applicant required to show proof of having applied for the required documentation, within a 3 month period of have applied for the grant. It is important to note that the applicant does not necessarily have to produce the required document within the 3 month period, but just produce proof of having approached the Department of Home Affairs to apply for the required documents. Should the applicant not provide that proof, then the grant is lapsed.

This action is taken to mitigate the risk of continuing to pay a grant to someone who does not qualify to obtain South African identity documents. However, SASSA is working closely with the Departments of Social Development and Home Affairs to determine alternative methods to mitigate these risks, without necessarily putting the responsibility on individual citizens.

The lapsings of the grants for the above children were initiated when the country was under level 1 of lockdown restrictions. However, as soon as the country moved back to level 3, discussions were entered into with the Department of Social Development to obtain approval to reinstate these grants. In addition, an agreement has been reached not to lapse any grants for any beneficiaries who do not have the relevant critical documents (both ID documents for adults as well as birth certificates for children) for as long as the state of disaster persists, regardless of the lock down level.

 

5. All 1 792 children’s grants which lapsed at the end of December were reinstated, with back pay for the month of January and paid in February 2021.

The total number of children’s grants for children without birth certificates in payment for February 2021 has increased to 29 064, as indicated below:

Province	Number
Eastern Cape	2 074
Free State	431
Gauteng	16 585
KwaZulu-Natal	2 108
Limpopo	367
Mpumalanga	671
Northern Cape	1 153
North West	203
Western Cape	5 472

Reply:

a) There are 291 active call centre agents.

b) (i) The UIF call centre receives on average 253 312 calls per month.

(ii) 236 903 (93,5%) are successfully resolved by the 291 active call centre agents.

c) The average wait time call to be responded to is 28 seconds

Reply:

The total number of public servants absent since the Adjusted Level 3 Lockdown as from 29 December 2020 amounts to 322 818. The statistics as provided are up to and inclusive of 31 January 2021 (the latest date for which information is available). The figure is made up of employees utilising approved leave as provided for in the Public Service prescripts and as set out in the table underneath. It is important to note that when an employee is counted, it does not mean that the employee was on leave for the full period, e.g. 29 December 2020 to 31 January 2021. This means the person was on leave within the period indicated. Further, the person may have been on leave on more than one occasion in the period. In accordance with the leave provisions in the Public Service it is incumbent on employees to apply for leave and obtain approval prior to taking leave.

LEAVE TAKEN AS FROM 29 DECEMBER 2020 TO 31 JANUARY 2021
Leave Category	Number Of Employees
Adoption	7
Family Responsibility	13 307
Leave Without Pay	929
Maternity	1 513
Occupational Injuries/Diseases	406
Paternity	272
Permanent Incapacity Leave	28
Pre-Natal	632
Shop Steward/Office Bearer	90
Sick-Full Pay	48 576
Special	13 518
Temporary Incapacity Leave	198
Vacation - Full Pay)	243 342
Total	322 818

End

Reply:

The National Youth Machinery meeting has been established at the national sphere of government, to coordinate youth development by all relevant stakeholders within the youth sector. It is a professional space to share information and showcase good practices. The meeting provides a platform to different stakeholders, to share information about their strategies, plans, programmes, and projects. The participants are youth workers who are mainly youth focal points from youth led and youth serving organisations.

The National Youth Machinery meeting consist of representatives from:

a) the National Youth Development unit in the DWYPD; to serve as the Convenor, Chairperson and Secretariat of the meeting;

b) the line function department responsible for youth development at the national sphere;

c) the youth units in the Offices the Premiers (representing each province);

d) the NYDA;

e) Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs;

f) the South African Local Government Association (SALGA);

g) the South African Youth Council (SAYC);

h) non-government youth led organisations; and

i) Representatives of the private sector.

There are similar structures at provincial and local levels, where provincial and local youth focal points representing Offices of the Premiers, provincial sector departments as well as district and local municipalities, also participate. The meeting participants are expected to engage directly with the clients they are servicing. This would mean that at provincial and local level, the youth workers (youth focal points), cascade information to majority of young people they are servicing including those residing in rural areas.

_________________________

Approved by Minister

Ms M Nkoana-Mashabane, MP

Date _____________________

Reply:

a) (i) and (ii) The validation and internal investigations into irregular payments were conducted in the 2017-2018 financial year to 2019-20 financial year. These validation and internal investigations were finalized on 20 September 2019.

b) The irregular payments for both ineligible deceased participants and non-qualifying government employees were recouped in Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 of 2020-2021 financial year from the relevant Implementing Agents.

Reply:

a) What measures have been put in place by her department to ensure that the non-compliance by many implementing agents have been addressed:

There were two main areas of non-compliance by the implementing agents. The first one had to do with providing supporting documents and invoices for money allocated to them for project implementation. The second one, also related to the first, had to do with reporting on their activities in relation to their Service Level Agreement.

In addressing the first non-compliance, the department implemented a process wherein the payments to NPOs fully accounted for any advances paid to them before further disbursements were made. The net effect was that for the year 2021, there was full compliance on all matter related to outstanding invoices. As a result of this practice, compliance related to invoices as measured by the suspense account is at 95%, with the balance being amounts disbursed later related to special projects.

In terms of previous year non-compliance, a special team comprised of NPOs and CWP staff was constituted to re-look and journalise the invoices related to financial years 2018/19 and 2019/20. This process yielded results that led to full accountability for these years. The Project is 90% complete, and what is left is eliminating any possible duplicate invoices and balancing to the financial system.

Regarding the non-compliance to the Service Level Agreement (SLA), various workshops were held with all the NPOs with the purpose of unpacking the SLAs and their responsibilities to that effect. All the reporting requirements were explained and the NPOs were assisted with the reporting templates. Currently there are no NPOs who are non-compliant as compliance to the SLA is linked to the financial accountability.

b) What will happen to the implementing agents at the CPW at the beginning of the 2021-22 financial year, especially those that have been seen not to comply with their service level agreements?

All the NPOs are compliant as stated above. Compliance with the SLA is linked to the NPOs’ eligibility to receive any funding from the department.

The contracts of all CWP Implementing Agents have been extended by six months starting from 01 April 2021.  

Reply:

It is generally not possible in South Africa for the state, or any bank or company, to secure loan funding without paying interest except, possibly, for small amounts of concessional funding. No bank in South Africa is likely to lend to customers without covering the full cost of capital, including interest. Some institutions may be able to structure a small part of their loan market for non-interest or sharia-related lending but such lending is very limited, and uses other mechanisms to recover their costs.

The question of whether any state bank can lend at lower interest rates than commencial banks, and whether such a business model will be sustainable, and bring no additional risk to the fiscus, is a separate question that the management of each state bank has to consider, including the extent of non-performing loans and affordability of its customers. It is imperative that no state bank must be a burden on the fiscus and that all state banks must be able to generate sufficient own-revenue to fund their operations. State banks which engage in lending activities need to develop robust lending and risk management models, so that they do not depend on fiscal transfers, or impose losses on depositors. As such, no funds have been budgeted to fund any interest-free lending, by any bank.

a) The amount of funds budgeted to fund interest on the national debt is available in the annual Budget documentation, including the Budget Review.

(i) The total amount of funds that was budgeted to fund interest on the national debt in the 1995 Budget for 1995/96 was R39,5 billion.

(ii) The total amount of funds budgeted to fund interest on the national debt in the latest, 2021 Budget is R232,9 billion for 2020/21.

b) As announced in the 2021 National Budget, the cost of servicing government’s debt, at R232,9 billion or 11,3% of consolidated expenditure in 2020/21, and rising in the next few years, is not sustainable. Hence, in the 2021 Budget, government has undertaken several measures which are expected to stabilise government debt at 88,9% of GDP in the 2025/26 financial year, and for the ratio to decline thereafter.

Reply:

1. The South African Police Service (SAPS) exercises executive authority over firearms and ammunition as regulated by the Ministry of Police, this includes the investigation of any loss or theft of such firearms and ammunition.

2. The Minister of Police may wish to make a statement on a matter.

Reply:

(a) The Comprehensive National GBVF Prevention Strategy was prioritised. The department divided the prioritisation of the Prevention Strategy into two phases; The 1st phase involved the development of a communication strategy. This was based on the understanding that over the years, public dialogue and visibility of GBVF around social behavioral change programmes has not transpired on communication platforms. The communication strategy was developed and concluded last year to inform and raise awareness and influence behavioral change. The GBVF Communication Strategy was developed with men and boys as the core target audience. The goal is to change the norms and stereotypes that perpetuate violence against women, children and the LGBTQIA+ sector.

The communication strategy was the first step towards the development of a comprehensive national prevention strategy

Below is the response for phase 2:

(b) Due to a lack of resources the Department has partnered with four UN agencies, namely UN Office on Drugs and Crime; UN Women; United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF); and UN Development Programme (UNDP) in the development of a Comprehensive National Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Prevention Strategy.

This partnership also includes the GIZ which is the German development cooperation with South Africa. This has been done to ensure that the implementation of the Prevention Strategy is not hindered.

It should be noted that the Prevention Strategy will be concluded in the 2021/22 financial year.

(c) The inability of the officials to develop the prevention strategy is based on the inadequate resources in terms of personnel and funding and not due to incompetency. It is the very officials that reached out to UN agencies in forging a partnership. This does not require consequences management. The partnership forged already is strategic enough and it will enhance existing capacity and yield the desired results.

___________________________

Approved by:

Ms M Nkoana-Mashabane, MP

Minister

Date:

Reply:

1. Yes, the Department of Traditional Affairs, has put legislative measures in place to visibly increase the role of traditional leaders as contemplated in Chapter 12 of the 1996 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa through the enactment of the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act, 2019 (Act No. 3 of 2019) (TKLA) which will commence on 01 April 2021.

To visibly increase the role of traditional and khoi-san leaders as envisaged in Chapter 12 of the 1996 Constitution, particularly at local government level, schedule 3, section 7 of the TKLA empowers traditional and khoi-san leaders to meaningfully participate in the affairs of District, Metropolitan and Local Municipalities. In this regard, the traditional and khoi-san leaders elected to participate in municipal councils are empowered by the TKLA to among others:

a) Address municipal councils on any matter directly or indirectly affecting or traditional and khoi-san communities in their areas of jurisdiction of the relevant municipal council. Furthermore, these leaders should prepare reports on all matters affecting traditional and khoi-san communities discussed in the council meeting within three weeks of the municipal council meeting and submit to the Local House of Traditional and Khoi-San leaders and traditional councils. These two roles allocated to traditional leaders by the TKLA ensure that traditional and khoi-san communities are well informed about the municipal affairs and can also participate effectively in municipal affairs through traditional and khoi-san leadership;

b) Make recommendations and propose appropriate interventions in respect of service delivery within the areas of jurisdiction of the relevant traditional or khoi-san councils to ensure that service delivery needs of traditional and khoi-san communities are attended to and included in the municipal integrated development plans (IDPs);

c) Facilitate the participation of the relevant traditional and khoi-san communities in the any affairs of the municipality that requires or allows for public participation, including the affairs of ward committees;

d) Participate in the development of policy and by-laws at municipal level;

e) Alert the municipality to any current or threatening hazard or calamity in their areas of jurisdiction which affects or may affect the municipal areas;

f) Support the municipality and ensure participation of traditional and khoi-san communities in the identification of the specific service delivery needs of their communities;

g) Support the relevant municipality in promoting integrated local economic development; and

h) Support the relevant municipality with the implementation of the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act, 2013.

Furthermore, the TKLA allocates a role to traditional leaders by empowering the institution of traditional leadership to enter into partnership and service level agreements for the benefit of their communities. In this regard, the institution of traditional leadership is empowered through section 24 of the TKLA to enter into partnerships with municipalities, government departments and any person, body or institution for socio-economic benefit of their communities.

2. The Traditional Courts Bill is a Bill that resides within the mandate of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. The Honourable member is advised to direct the question to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.

 

Reply:

The Minister is still awaiting the background information from the Gauteng Provincial Department of COGTA on the matters raised by the Honorable Sarupen, which is necessary for the Minister to provide responses to the questions posed. However, subsection (2) and (3) of the question are matters within the scope of work of the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy as well as the Ministry of Environment, Forestry & Fisheries, respectively.

Reply:

Yes, accordingly, the incident was discovered on 01 January 2021 and reported to the Department of Water and Sanitation and other stakeholders as per the drinking Water Incident Management Protocol.

The Water Treatment Works (WTW) was immediately stopped and process units were backwashed, and the raw water sump was drained. The intensive monitoring programme to determine the extent of the contamination was instituted. A warning alert was sent to the public immediately to stop consuming water on 2 January 2021.

The WTW was recommissioned and determine suitable for operations as per the SANS 241:2015 on 03 February 2021.

Reply:

The NSG is one of the entities that reports to the Minister for Public Service and Administration and has its own premises that it leases from DPWI (PIC) situated at ZK Matthews, Trevenna Bld, 70 Meintjies street Sunnyside PRETORIA and utilise the following security firms.

(i) Name of the Company	(ii) Purpose	(iii) Contract Value	(iv) Duration of the contract
Phuthadichaba Trading Enterprise cc (Reg 2003/034074/23)	To provide physical security services to safeguard NSG personnel and property	R 17, 538, 566,28	Five (5) years (01 November 2018 – 31 October 2023)
Vox Telecommunications (Pty) Ltd (Reg 2011/000797/07)	To provide management and maintenance service for CCTV surveillance, Access Control and Intruder Alarm System	R2,128,829.36	36 months (01 January 2020-31 December 2023)

REPLY: PSC

The Office of the Public Service Commission (OPSC) has appointed private security firms for four Provincial Offices as set out in the table below:

i) Name of service provider	ii)Purpose	iii) Value	iv) Duration of each contract
Tyeks Security Services	Alarm Monitoring and Guard Services (day and night) for the Eastern Cape Provincial Office	R614 477.76	01 November 2019 to 31 October 2021
Divergent OPS (Pty) Ltd	Alarm Monitoring for the Mpumalanga Provincial Office	R40 986.00	01 March 2020 to 28 February 2022
National Security and Fire	Alarm Monitoring for the Limpopo Provincial Office	R44 683.35	01 November 2019 to 31 October 2022
Defensor Electronic Security System	Alarm Monitoring for the Free State Provincial Office	R11 098.41	01 October 2020 to 30 September 2021

REPLY: DPSA

a) Yes

Department of Public Service and Administration:

1. Jackcliffy Trading Cc
2. Security guarding services during week days, weekends, Public Holidays and nightshift.
3. R2 589 998.80
4. Two year contract

b) Thusong Service Centre

1. Masutha Training & Security Services (Pty) Ltd
2. Security Guarding Services during week days and on Saturday only.
3. R4 524 399.72
4. Three year contract

REPLY: CPSI

a) The CPSI does not make use of private security firms. The organisation has 3 permanently employed Security Officers on the staff establishment.

(i) N/A

(ii) N/A

(iii) NA

(iv) N/A

End

Reply:

a) (i) & (ii) The rand value of the backlog is indicated in the table below:

No	Type	Kilometres	Rand value (approx.)*
1	Backlog of Resurfacing/Rehabilitation	1352	R3.1 billion

*costs for rehabilitation and resurfacing increase year on year

b). The budget that has been set aside to deal with the above is as follows:

No	Type	Budget	Kilometres
1	Resurfacing/Rehabilitation	R248 million	106

The budget of R248 million has already been spent in the current financial year (2020/2021) for rehabilitation/resurfacing of 106km. Resurfacing is one of different methods of rehabilitation hence the two have been merged.

Reply:

a) The lease for the Williston Office is entered into and managed by the National Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (NDPWI). SASSA is the User Client. As a result, SASSA pays all the rentals payable to DPWI and not directly to the landlord. All amounts due for rental for this office have been paid to DPWI.

b) Payment was due and payable by NDPWI for the months of October, November and December 2020 respectively amounting to R28 339.95 (R9.446.65 per month). This balance was duly settled in February 2021 by DPWI.

It is reported that DPWI was paying the rental into the bank account of the deceased Lessor/Landlord. DPWI received an instruction from the Attorneys of the deceased Lessor/Landlord, to change the banking details accordingly. This was not done timeously and the payments were returned as this bank account was closed. Subsequently NDPWI processed the new banking details as instructed and has paid the outstanding amounts, thereby putting this matter to rest.

Reply:

(1) No irregularities were noted in the cancelled tender. The tender was cancelled in accordance with regulation 13 (1) (c) of the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act, as no acceptable bids were received. All 150 bid proposals were disqualified for not achieving the mandatory requirements of the tender.

(2) None of the proposals met the mandatory requirements as outlined in the bid document.

(3) No.

Reply:

(1) The Report of the Ministerial Committee on the Review of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme has been completed and submitted to the Minister. The Report will be published for public comment after a briefing and presentation to Cabinet. 

(2) The Minister will make a statement after the briefing and presentation to Cabinet.

Reply:

1. Yes, the DPSA has mechanisms to ensure Batho Pele principles are entrenched in the Public Service.

Chapter 10 of the Constitution mandates the MPSA to ensure professionalization of the Public Service with high standards of the professional ethics. To this effect, MPSA launched the Public Service Professionalization Consultation Process led by the National School of Government.

The Public Service Act 1994 empowers the MPSA to ensure transformation, reform, innovation as well as any other matters that improves the efficacy of the Public Service. Policy Frameworks such as The White Paper on Transformation of the Public Service (1995), The White Paper on Transforming the Public Service Delivery (1997) are central to the implementation of the Batho Pele Principles approach in the public service.

2. Amongst others, mechanisms to ensure Batho Pele principles are entrenched in the Public Service are:-

2.1. Public Service Charter (2013) which accelerates the Batho Pele policy as a social contract between the Public Service and organised labour in ensuring quality services to the citizenry.

2.2. National Batho Pele Forums consisting of both national and provincial departments coordinators.

2.3. Implementation of the “Khaedu” programme that is centred on the deployment of Senior Members Service employees to various frontline government department to monitor, ensure compliance and redress of the delivery of services to the people.

2.4. National Batho Pele Excellence Awards is one of the key mechanism that the DPSA host annually to celebrate those employees who has mastered the implementation of the Batho Pele principles.

3. Impact of the specified measures and/or mechanisms on the public service and its ability to deliver services to our people

3.1. The Department host the Integrated Government-Wide Public Service Month in September annually to lead the entire government in assessing the impact of public service delivery in line with the Batho Pele principles.

3.2. The major impact was demonstrated currently during the COVID-19 pandemic, where the public servants who are working in the front line were able to deliver quality public service by living the ethos of Batho Pele principles

END

Reply:

The Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) has committed an amount of ~R95 million for COVID-19 biomedical research and innovation activities covering in the following fields of research:

Research field	Amount disbursed
a) Prevention and vaccines	R7 684 831
b) Repurposing of Drugs for Treatment	R8 483 130
c) Convalescent sera	R4 571 244
d) Understanding the disease	R2 877 495
e) Diagnostics	R16 491 509
f) Genomic Surveillance	R36 338 830
g) Wastewater Surveillance	R345 989
h) Surveillance /Epidemiology	R2 128 665
i) 501Y.V2 variant	R7 636 395
Total amount committed /disbursed	R86 558 088
Amount still to be allocated	R8 441 912

Reply:

(1) (a) The total number of Directors-General in national departments who are currently acting is ten (10).

(b) National Departments with acting Directors-General:

1. Department of Social Development
2. Department of Water and Sanitation
3. Department of Military Veterans
4. Small Business Development
5. The Presidency
6. Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
7. Communication and Digital Technologies
8. State Security Agency
9. International Relations and Cooperation
10. Office of the Public Service Commission

(2) In terms of the regulatory framework, Regulation 63 (2) of the Public Service Regulations, 2016 states that, “an employee directed to act in another post in terms of section 32 (2) should have the necessary competency for the post to which he or she is appointed to act”. As defined in the Public Service Regulations, 2016, Competency means the combination of knowledge, skills, behaviour and aptitude that a person can apply in the work environment, which indicates a person's ability to meet the requirements of a specific post. For purposes of business continuity meeting qualifications for a post for purposes of acting is not a requirement however, noting the definition, competency to perform the duties are.

(a&b) The names of the acting Directors-General and the Departments in which they are acting:

1. Department of Social Development: Mr L Mchunu
2. Department of Water and Sanitation: Mr T Belzar
3. Department of Military Veterans: Mr DM Mgwebi
4. Small Business Development: Mr L Mkhumane
5. The Presidency: Ms L Mxenge
6. Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
7. Communication and Digital Technologies: Ms N Jordan-Dyani
8. State Security Agency: Mr L Jafta
9. International Relations and Cooperation: Nonceba Losi
10. Office of the Public Service Commission: Ms IL Mathenjwa

End